This is all to say that an awful lot of effort has gone into making sure Canadian authorship is prioritized in Canada, but if we don’t do our part it will be hard it won’t work. We are so proud of our Canadian books. Why aren’t we shouting it from the digital rooftops?

This summer I mentioned to some friends that I was programming BNC Technology Forum 2011. (Yes, I know, I’m probably their most boring friend.) I was mentioning that I felt it was important to include a session on digital marketing, and two of my friends immediately perked up. One works in PR and the other works in online advertising, and both had the same thought: they were salivating at the idea of advertising in books. Their enthusiasm was equally matched by my repulsion.

Tools of Change, or TOC for the acronym lovers in the crowd, is a technology conference for publishing that O’Reilly Publishing started in 2007. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the past two years and am looking forward to TOC 2011 this February. Here’s why…

Thinking about going to Tools of Change for Publishing in February? Not many conferences feature both CanLit queen Margaret Atwood and ‘Chief Cheezburger’ Ben Huh on their keynote roster. If you are heading to the Big Apple to check out this year’s sessions, here are some tips from my first TOC experience last year.

BISG has just released the 2010 version of the BISAC Subject Code List. To some you it may sound like a boring announcement, but the smart ones out of you realize that this actually impacts our business, a lot.

So BISAC Subject Code List, why are you so important? Well, here’s why.

The BookNet Canada team has been developing an e-catalogue service for the Canadian publishing industry and we’re nearing the reveal. Perhaps some of you have heard of BNC CataList? BNC’s Samantha Francis explains why it’s time to get your metadata ready and to use BiblioShare.

What are the general guidelines for producing “good” ONIX support for e-books? Quality data exchange requires two things: clarity about how Product Identifiers are being used and the use of the ONIX 3.0 standard. Given that we are lacking both of these things, the answer to how to make a “good” e-book is a bit ambiguous. Use the following as a starting point, ask questions of your trading partners, and—please!—comment on this post.

Last week, Evan Schnittman wrote a blog post for Digital Book World called “Enabling a Global Marketing Strategy” in which he argues that we should go back to selling world English rights to one publisher. In his opinion, global publishing plans serve the author and the book better. But although we are increasingly connected to each other digitally, is it right to assume that the culture and tastes of people around the world have homogenized? Are book buyers in the US and Australia the same? I think not.

BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. Founded in 2002 to address systemic challenges in the industry, BookNet Canada supports publishing companies, booksellers, wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, industry associations, literary agents, media, and libraries across the country.